Youth Baseball Coach Suspended For Using N-Word On Facebook

CHICAGO (CBS) — A southwest suburban man has been suspended as head of a youth baseball league, after he used the N-word in a Facebook posting about singer Whitney Houston.

As WBBM Newsradio’s Bernie Tafoya reports, John Kelly of Oak Lawn insists he is not racist, and he tells the SouthtownStar he has some amazing friends who are African-American. But now, he says his life has been ruined by his use of the N-word.

Kelly does not deny writing the Facebook post with the slur. He just says he didn’t realize he was using the word when he posted to Facebook, “I’m so sick of this dumb, stupid n****r Whitney Houston,” the SouthtownStar reported.

By the time he noticed he’d used the word, it was too late, he told the newspaper.

Kelly posted the comment to his personal Facebook page. He was tired of hearing media coverage of Houston’s death, and resented the fact that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ordered flags flown at half-staff for her, the newspaper reported.

But the mother of a former player at Westside Baseball of Oak Lawn, where Kelly is a coach, reposted the comment to her own Facebook page and that of the youth league, the SouthtownStar reported. She told the newspaper she wanted other parents to know about the remark.

Kelly has been suspended by the Westside Baseball league. He will remain on the board of the league, but is banned from coaching for a year, the SouthtownStar reported.